Wednesday, 3 August 2011

History of Psychiatric Illness Predictive of Post Brain Injury Disorders

A new study indicates to Los Angeles brain injury lawyers that certain factors may be predictive of an increased risk of psychiatric illness after a traumatic brain injury. For one, a person with a history of psychiatric illness could be at an increased risk of suffering psychiatric disorders after a traumatic brain injury.

The findings of the study have been published in a report titled Predictive and Associated Factors of Psychiatric Disorders after Traumatic Brain Injury: a Prospective Study in the Journal of Neurotrauma. It suggests that depression, anxiety or any other psychiatric illness could be an indicator for the risk of developing psychiatric disorders after a TBI.

Researchers based their findings on a study involving 122 adults who had suffered a traumatic brain injury and 88 proxy informants. In all patients, psychiatric illnesses were present before the injury as well as one year after the injury. The results showed that individuals who did not have a psychiatric disorder before an injury were less likely to suffer from psychiatric disorders12 months after the injury.

There are other factors that can predict the later development of psychiatric illnesses, including symptoms of psychiatric illness soon after a brain injury, and a simultaneous limb injury.

Patients who suffered a limb injury along with a brain injury had their risk of developing a psychiatric disorder increase by 6.4 times at one year after the injury, compared to patients who had no limb injury. Additionally, the research found that patients who had suffered a concurrent limb injury were specifically predisposed to depression a year after the TBI.

Besides limb injury and pre-TBI psychiatric illness, there were other factors that also increased a person's risk of developing psychiatric disorders after an injury. Persons who were unemployed, had a poor quality of life, and poor coping skills, were more likely to develop psychiatric illnesses after a TBI.